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David Carney: The invisible man

David Carney will have no trouble finding a post football career.

David Carney will have no trouble finding a post football career.

The one time Sydney FC star, sometime Socceroo, has more stamps on his passport than Kevin Rudd. When he finally hangs up his boots a job as travel writer or foreign correspondent would be the perfect fit for the world-weary winger.

His most recent sojourn has been with Spanish second division outfit AD Alcoron. Carney arrived in Spain after a fruitless year at then Premier League outfit Blackpool where he managed just eleven cameo appearances.

His time on the pitch in Spain was even more limited, managing just an hour of playing time in league matches since turning up for duty in October.

Combine that paltry pitch time with the meagre tally of 11 games he eeked out with FC Twente in The Netherlands in the 2009-2010 season, David Carney has become the invisible footballer, a study in the art of how to disappear completely.

Carney is on the move again, this time to Central Asia, where he is set to try his luck in Uzbekistan-s FC Bunyodkor.

Have boots, will travel.

Whilst it sounds like an exotic adventure, in reality Carney has seen his career stall in spectacular fashion by a series of poor decisions which have left him as the prince of the pine, backside sat on a series of benches in some obscure stadiums of the football world.

Since 2006 Carney has managed 36 appearances for The Socceroos. If you do the math, it-s a ratio of one International appearance for his country for every two club games he-s appeared in - many as a sub - during that time.

It would be funny if it weren-t both sad and damn annoying that a player as gifted as Carney seems to have spent the better days of his career as a footballing ghost, wandering the globe in search of a pay-cheque and if possible, a chance to play.

How has it come to this?

Why isn-t Carney playing regular football here in The Hyundai A-League?

Why isn-t he testing himself on a weekly basis against the best and brightest young talent in the country?

Why isn-t he here adding to the growing ranks of Socceroos who-ve returned home to be part of the evolution of the domestic competition?

True, it-s not compulsory that old Socceroos must return to the A-League.

Carney is fully entitled to pursue his footballing and financial ambitions wherever he chooses. However, for a bloke that holds ambitions to be part of the Socceroos quest for qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, David Carney is standing still whilst the world is passing him by.

One hopes his time in Uzbekistan is fruitful. There-s no doubt his agent and his bank manager certainly think it will be, it-s hard to imagine he-s moving there for a holiday lifestyle.

Hell, he might even play a game of football. He might manage two consecutive games. He won-t know himself if he does. It might even remind him why he got involved in the caper in the first place.

In the meantime, for all young Socceroos and talented Aussies renewing their passports and looking to take their talents offshore, David Carney-s disappearing act is a cautionary tale.